Longtime Talladega Chairman Grant Lynch Has Died

Grant Lynch, a big man, was perfectly suited in so many ways to be in charge of Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR’s biggest track.

Lynch, who retired as chairman of Talladega Superspeedway in 2019 after decades in sports management, died Thursday. He was 71.

Few people other than competitors had a more positive impact on NASCAR and its core base of fans in the Southeastern heartland than Lynch, whose death is being felt in hundreds of homes across the racing landscape today.

Robust and outgoing, Lynch was the opposite of the suit-and-tie chairman who issues rulings from on high in a hermetically sealed office. He was out among the people, talking up the next race, maybe giving away a cap or two and entertaining race fans with tales of drivers long gone.

On any particular race weekend, he could be spotted roaming the Talladega infield or hanging around the garage area and media center, trading stories with friends and catching up on the latest. He could be seen approaching from a distance, mostly because he often wore an overly large Talladega Superspeedway cap with an extended bill.

“Printed on that cap was the slogan he used for Talladega—Size Matters,” said Darlington Raceway executive Russell Branham, who worked on Lynch’s staff at Talladega. “He always liked to talk about how big the track was, how many lead changes we had, the fast racing, all that. He was floored by how big the place was. He was very proud of that, something he could hang his hat on.”

Although Lynch will be remembered mainly for his time at Talladega, it should not be overlooked that he built the foundation of his career as a mover and shaker at R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company’s Sports Marketing Enterprises, the office charged with running the sports promotions linking RJR’s various tobacco brands and the sports they sponsored.

RJR, which sponsored NASCAR’s top series through its Winston brand for more than three decades, had an impressive executive program that ultimately sent some of its top people on to bigger jobs in the sports world. Lynch was one of the most prominent.

“Grant Lynch was one of the most effervescent, extroverted, beautiful people I’ve ever known,” said retired Las Vegas Motor Speedway president Chris Powell, who worked with Lynch at RJR. “Everybody who encountered Grant loved him. He was deeply passionate about whatever he was doing. Everybody in the racing world held him in such high regard.”

Lynch built close relationships with many in the NASCAR orbit. An avid hunter, he and long-time team owner Richard Childress often escaped the racing routine on hunting trips.

Lynch loved to spin stories about his time at RJR and along the racing road. During his career at Reynolds, he ran the Vantage cigarette sponsorship of what then was known as the PGA Senior Tour. He recalled traveling to Florida to attend the annual PGA Show, where dozens of exhibitors offer their golf-related wares for sale. Backed by the riches of RJR sponsorship, Lynch had a big checkbook.

“I was wandering around the booths, and I came across this guy who had a bunch of shirts on display,” Lynch said. “They were really nice velour shirts. I asked him if he could put sponsorship identification on the front of the shirts. He said, ‘How many do you think you would need?’ ‘Oh, about three thousand,’ I said. I thought the guy was going to fall over backward.”

Lynch’s involvement with the Winston brand and its various racing elements led to a call from NASCAR inviting him to join in an executive role, and he was off to bigger things. In addition to guiding Talladega through some of its most successful seasons and through renovation programs, he became a key figure in the development of Kansas Speedway and Chicagoland Speedway and was one of the individuals NASCAR leadership called on to put out fires. “He was sort of like a Mr. Fix-It,” Branham said. “He got involved in various aspects of the business and was able to find ways to climb mountains and get things accomplished.”

Powell said Lynch “was in so many ways a character but at the same time someone who took his job very seriously. Some in the sport will never know what a hero they lost in Grant.”

Lynch’s absence will be on the minds of many later this month when Talladega hosts its Cup playoff weekend.